Friday, August 19, 2011 at 8:35AM 
One of biggest tasks that we have in Haiti is to make sure that we & our partner churches, are aware of and sensitive to any "help" that might have negative repercussions for the people or the country as a whole. If not, good intentions can often become devastating! This post explains it far better than we could...
We humbly ask each of you - PLEASE take a minute to Read this Link!!
Wednesday, August 17, 2011 at 7:35PM We have had a nice reprieve from driving this week, once we landed at Rebecca's aunt's home in Rhode Island. Narragansett is one of our favorite places in the world. The weather has been beautiful and we are having a great time with the cousins!
The girls helped with VBS a couple of days at West Kingston Baptist Church which ended with Sunday services and an animal exhibit...
Ted even got to finally see an alligator!
Monday, August 8, 2011 at 12:47PM 
We are about to send out our summer email newsletter (the last one came out in April). If you want to receive our next newsletter it's really easy to sign up. Just click here or on the 'Newsletter' link at the top left of the page and fill out the form and you will automatically be added to the mailing list. There's even a link at the bottom to all of our past newsletters so you can catch up. It's that simple!
Tuesday, August 2, 2011 at 11:07AM
“Count Your Blessings”
Though we ARE officially without a “home” now, we haven’t yet been “homeless”! This first week on the road we have been blessed by so many of our brother’s and sister’s in Christ it has been amazing.
Sitting in the home of some good friends here in Lee, NH, I couldn’t help but notice a prominent sign above their fireplace. It is surrounded by frames holding the darling faces of their 4 boys… and it says: “Count Your Blessings”. That prompted a view of our first week on the road and all that it has held.
First, a huge concern was lifted off our shoulders as Calvary Chapel, Sawgrass offered to store our household goods bound for Haiti until we are ready to go... Through their organization, “Haiti’s Hope”, we also have the use of a P.O. Box for all of our mail to come into! Once we are in Haiti, they will hand deliver it each month – blessings #1-2
So far we have traveled 1,964 miles safely and our old Yukon is still holding up! – blessing #3
Ted’s cell phone was lost on day 2, but the restaurant called the last # and reached Stephen (Woodall), the friend we were visiting with. He was able to go back and pick it up for us! It will return to us by mail this week – blessing #4
The next day we found out that our friends at CCTI (Crisis Care Training International) had an enormous guest home available for our use. We had comfy beds and a wonderful time of fellowship with Phyllis Killborn, along with Richard, Dorothy, and Rosemary - her ministry team. Ted and I worked alongside them in Haiti last year providing children’s trauma counseling training – they were then and still remain mentors and true inspiration to us with their servant-like hearts. – blessing #4
While in the Carolina’s we also were invited for a delicious home-cooked meal by Chris, one of Tynan’s LETU schoolmates. MEATLOAF – everybody’s favorite! We had a great evening getting to know the Schultz family and hearing about their heart for missions. – blessing #5
On Saturday we arrived at Rick and Phyllis LeBranche’s home in Durham, NH. It was a REALLY cool place! Tynan calls it their “hobbit home” which is a compliment of the highest regard! We relished being surrounded by nature, the milder New England summer weather, enjoyed swimming, fishing & canoeing in the river, barbecuing with friends from Durham Evangelical Church, and sharing preparations for ministry. The LaBranches are moving to Ethiopia full time next year with WO, and their church partners with a WO Haitian church already. The twins were excited to make a new friend! Their youngest daughter, Kami, was also adopted and is going to be an MK in orphan care now, too!! – blessings 6 – 10
That leads us up to today, where we have just roused from a comfortable night’s sleep at our friend's home. We have been thoroughly blessed by their calm, sweet natures and their passion to live “radically” for God, however opportunity arises. We are looking forward to returning the favor when they come visiting us in Haiti one day, too! – blessings #11 -12
These are only the ones that we have quickly had time to count…there were SO MANY more leading up to this point in our ministry “journey”. We cherish them all, hard lessons included, as God uses them to get each one of us ready to minister for Him both here and now, and one day in Haiti.
Rhode Island is our next stop, where we anticipate a rare opportunity for making new memories with family and “old” friends. Pray for us also as we will be leading the Sunday service on 8/14 at Calvary Bible Church, a congregation that was planted by my grandfather over 50 years ago. They are my spiritual heritage and even invested in my nursing career many years ago…so we are excited to share where God is taking us next!
Tuesday, July 12, 2011 at 10:55PM I’m thrilled to be able to say that today, as we’ve had about 2-3 weeks now of gloomy, rainy weather here in South FL. I must be getting too used to the sun here, because I was already a little blue in just the few weeks it disappeared!
While Ted and Em probably have much more interesting experiences to write about, I wanted to share what God has been doing in our lives during this time here in FL.
1. Ted has been able to travel back & forth to Haiti 4 times in the past 2 months, and is there again now. His presence & support for Ron our Haitian program director has been invaluable. Ron was stretched very thin. (and if you knew Ron, you would see that is as literal as it is figurative – he is a bean pole!) There have been American teams coming and going all summer long. Ted has been able to shoulder part of the workload and keep the guest house functioning comfortably and smoothly for them.
2. With our home sale finally closed, my job has provided our housing & the funds necessary for T to travel back & forth. It has also been an opportunity to share with many co-workers about our ministry, the plight of the orphan, and my faith. A side benefit is that I have met many Haitians and learned more about their culture, as well as many others.
3. All of us have learned how to be a minority, which is great preparation for our move. This area is extremely multicultural; we have enjoyed hearing a large variety of different languages wherever we go!
4. Through God’s leading we dropped in & began attending a church very close to home, called Calvary Chapel, Sawgrass. As it turns out they have a ministry with orphans in Haiti as well! In fact according to Pastor J, the youth minister, who leads the Haiti missions program, they had just begun praying that they could find someone on the ground, in Port au Prince to provide help as needed for their ministry!
5. In addition to connecting about our ministries and our heart for orphans, the youth and leaders at this church have welcomed our kids like “family”. We have been so blessed by this body of believers! This past week, they sent Tynan & Olivia at last minute to their HS/College summer camp with scholarships. While there, Olivia refreshed her relationship with Christ, personalized her call to Haiti, recommitted herself to the move, and was baptized in the lake to proclaim her life in Him.
6. There are hundreds of little ways that I have also seen God at work in each of us the past few months. Some I cannot exactly put into words, except to say that I see Him preparing us in such small details now. It is exciting, because it confirms our need for this time still here in the states, and yet proclaims His faithfulness in providing everything that we need to do His work there. Our faith in His provision for anything more we may need has been rooted deeply during this time.
As the next phase of our transitional time quickly approaches, please keep us in your prayers:
-For each of us to walk in the Spirit daily & glorify Him in all that we do
-Packing up again, begins in 2 weeks 1 week!
-Getting everything that we need from here over to Haiti
-Locating our housing in PAP this month.
-Finding the right vehicle to purchase in Haiti
-Travel up the Northeast Coast to visit family & friends
-Travel back to TX in early September for Ted’s niece’s wedding
- Tynan’s school plans for this fall to be clear
-Our cross-cultural training in CO in September
-Full monthly support to be in place for our anticipated move date: October 1st
barlowfamily
Just as I prepared this post, the news came today from my travel RN agency that all of the travel positions are receiving 2 weeks notice (which apparently began Saturday) due to low census in the hospital. So my position and thus our housing ends a week earlier than planned - an interesting twist...
so, we're moving out in 12 days!
